Asmussen to be Saluted Thursday Night,
May 24th at Lone Star Park Steve Asmussen, Lone Star Park's
all-time leading trainer who saddled Curlin to victory in Saturday's 132nd
Preakness Stakes, will return to Lone Star Park on Thursday night after
spending the last three days in Louisville, Kentucky.
Asmussen has seven horses entered at Lone Star on Thursday, including
Valid Lilly (Race 3), Surfboard (Race 3), Swamp Gator (Race 5), Value
System (Race 5) and Soar Above (Race 7) in trials for the fillies division
of the $100,000 TTA Sales Futurity. Asmussen has won the race a record
seven times. The finals will be held on Saturday, June 9 - the same day
Curlin will start in the 138th Belmont Stakes.
Trials for the colts and gelding division will be held Friday night.
Lone Star Park officials will salute Asmussen's Preakness Stakes victory
in the winner's circle after Thursday night's first race, which is scheduled
for 6:35 p.m. CT.
Also, Asmussen will be joined at Lone Star Park on Monday by Kentucky
Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel in a free autograph session before the
ninth annual Lone Star Million program. The special signings with the
Triple Crown competitors will take place inside Lone Star Park's East
Gate Entrance on Monday from 12-1 p.m.
Kentucky-based Borel will be in town to ride Jonesboro in the Grade III,
$400,000 Lone Star Park Handicap - the marquee event on Lone Star Million
Day.
The Lone Star Million - six stakes races, including a trio of Grade III
events, cumulatively worth more than $1 million in prize money - is Texas'
richest annual day of horse racing. Monday's 11-race holiday program will
begin at 1:35 p.m. CT and grandstand gates will open at 11:30 a.m.
Asmussen's Preakness victory with Curlin was the biggest of his 22-year
career. The 41-year-old resides just minutes from Lone Star Park in Arlington,
Texas with his wife Julie and three sons, Keith James, Darren Scott and
Erik Mark. He has won 665 races at Lone Star Park - more than any other
trainer in track history - and eight of the last nine local Thoroughbred
training titles. He's also been the national leading trainer in races
won in three of the last five years, including a record 555 races in 2004.
Asmussen said Curlin would be pointed to the June 9 Belmont Stakes.
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